Hi there. I’m Jaclyn Tracey, author of Eden’s Black Rose, coming to the Wild Rose Press Feb. 19th, 2010..... Happy Dance Time. 

Party plans to follow soon!

I’m here to pose a question:

Can two polar opposites, pantsers versus plotters, accomplish the same task? Write a novel worthy of steaming up not only the characters, but the readers as well? Bring tears of joy and gut-wrenching turmoil to our hearts and allow us to become enthralled, to care for our characters as we do our families?

Control versus out of control. I tend to fall in the latter part of this statement.

For the thirty-eight years I was blessed with my mother’s wisdom she never failed to ask me, “Jack, when are you going to learn you can’t sail through life by the seat of your pants?”

To date, I’m still flying high even though I’m no trapeze artist. No safety net beneath me in case I slip. Crash and burn is my motto and I’m sticking with it, scars and all.

I am one of those people who go to bed late and wake up bright and early without a game plan. Let the chips land where they may. Care free, happy-go-lucky or missing marbles?

Whateverrr! Somehow, I make it through the day.

This particular piece of my genetic make-up drives my husband bonkers. We are polar opposites.

For him, there’s a routine to follow, guidelines to adhere to. He needs those walls of support. He is, after all, an engineer! And just maybe he has more on his plate than I do…nah!

My theme song is Korn’s, Coming Undone.

For each of us, we have developed our own way of muddling through the hours of our days. I affectionately call those who live in the other 180 * of this world, Type A personalities, or better know to the authors of the world, plotters.

The incessant need to jot things down, organize, think something through, stick with it, develop an outline… I despised outlines as a kid, and to date, despise the synopsis with the same enthusiasm. I can’t think that far ahead. Could that be why I have always been in trouble my entire life??? Hmmm!

My synopsis comes at the book’s end. I go through and painstakingly try to condense 360 +pages into 3 or 4 pages of gibberish. For the record, someone had a morose sense of humor when they came up with that word back in 1611.

For starters lets just say you’re in the midst of developing your character’s personality. I toy with a few ideas in my head, and start typing and from that point on, the character is no longer mine, but Pinocchio singing, dancing, carrying on inside me, clawing for a way out, to live and breathe without the need of me as its life-support. I allow him the freedom to roam. It’s how I was brought up. What I’m attempting to get across is that when I sit down to write, it is no longer me at the keyboard. It’s either Serina, Raven, Lucian, Savanah or Duncan or Ethan or…. I have roughly 25 voices screaming at me to be heard at any given time. Cybil aint got squat on me.

I run with their ideas and see where it leads. Usually trouble. And it never seems to fail that they come through at the most inopportune moments, when I’m in a meeting, driving my car, sleeping… I am forever excusing myself out of a room, writing notes on my hands because I lack paper in the car and can’t read a single word I’ve written when I get up the morning after I’ve tried to write a line or 2 down at 3 or 4 am from a sound sleep. I call my cell and leave messages to me so I won’t forget what it is I need to remember. It’s about as orderly as I get. Possibly plotters have the same problems? I don’t know. But what I do know is I’ve sat through workshops (wonderful classes given by brilliant well-known authors who bring their plotting wealth of wisdom to the table to share). Plotters’ juices flow with this. I sat through a workshop this summer at our local chapter conference and watched many women salivating over different mechanisms, charts, graphs, papers to fill out on personalities, how opposites attract, how to name your characters, (I personally borrowed all my family and friend’s names for my guys and gals. It was a personal choice. I wanted to include them in my books and luckily I love all the names!) themes, the world they live in…. OMG! It’s too much like school. I know many people thrive in this environment. How? I’m being sincere.

I can’t do it.

I don’t think pantsers have to many seminars or classes on which way the wind blows and how to stay afloat. Take life by the balls and hang on for dear life!

Call it ADD, no focus, to much caffeine (most likely the caseJ) or way too much space between the synapses in my grey matter that I have never been able to stay within the lines. Forget paint by numbers…

Sitting down a month before I know I have a paper due? I laugh at the very thought of being deemed so organized. Always burnt the midnight oil the night before anything was needed. Case and point, this paper is due on the blog in about 11 hours and I just started it… Maybe not the best made plan, but I have survived the slush pile, made it through all the edits and am one step away from seeing my baby, Eden’s Black Rose, in print. Yes, there is a giant grin plastered on my lips!

I tend to take the scenic route in life, get lost, ask for directions, get lost again because I don’t write them down the first time and yes, believe it or not, I do learn from past mistakes. And in actuality I can stay focused… if my muse is in a cooperative mood. I’ve been known to lock myself in my room for 2-3 days without coming up for air and just tap away at my keyboard. However, those are random moments. Family, friends, puppies and coworkers tend to get peeved when you try to seclude yourself from life.

I have the highest of regard for people’s work ethics. Who am I to critique another’s routine and what gets them from the beginning to the end of a story, when I hang onto the end of my rope daily and dangle over an open pit of hungry piranhas?

No one.

To each his own. One man’s junk is another’s treasure. Diversity is what makes the world go round.

As long as we write worthy of ourselves who cares how the journey is accomplished. Just be thankful it is. And enjoy it every step of the way.

An imagination is an awful thing to waste.

 

May each of you have a safe, healthy and happy holiday.

Jack

 

 

 

Happy Halloween

Beware mere mortals, there’s a new guy in town… well not really so new, but in truth very old, ancient actually, experienced and as of lately, sexier than any one man—or woman has a God-given right to be, but then these lustful creatures of the night aren’t of the Divine Order, or are they? Vampires are among us. And hopefully here to stay! At least until all my books are pubbed—sorry for that shameless plug about Eden’s Black Rose! Coming next year from The Wild Rose Press.

 They’re on television, movie screens, hogging up bookstore’s shelves, snuggling next to you in your bedroom heating up your hormones not to mention any other part of your anatomy that loves to be caressed, kissed, sucked or nibbled on. And let’s face it, who among us doesn’t enjoy having their neck kissed or their inner thigh nibbled on? Two of my fav hot spots, not that you needed to know that. TMI? Not nearly half as bad as the detail I could go into…but I won’t today. Not sure of the ratings here J

 

I watched Dracula and those he sired since I was big enough to turn on the telly, and I gotta tell ya’ll, I don’t recall them being anything other than scary enough for me to go running to my mom for protection... And no, she wasn’t armed with apotropaics—Holy H20 or crucifixes, branches of a wild rose, silver anything or multiple strands of garlands even though I do adore the stuff. Ever try garlic ice cream? Ummm. (Callie, remind me to add to my 2^nd book where Olivia stuffs the thorned branch down his trousers? Revisions and edits—do they ever really end?)

Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula.

 I have just one burning question really—when did the thieving, conniving revenants become the to-die-for-sex-heroes of our books and movies? When did Mr. Wrong turn into Mr. Right? Coz this guy just doesn’t do it for me! Can’t see myself hopping into Bela’s casket for a quickie.

The little bat still visits me in my nightmares. Back in the day those animated little corpses reminded me of a giant mosquito out to make my life miserable; left me with an insatiable itch. Today, that itch has a delicious sensation when it’s accompanied with the promise of untamed, unbridled primitive passion; the killer “O” as long as it doesn’t really land you in the morgue. There’s the risk that draws people to the dark side. 

Has our own daily dilemmas taken such a plunge into the underbelly of the world that we are desperate for new blood? Are we the true vamps in search of new destinies? A quickie fix?

I’m always up for a quickie J

Have death and taxes and all that lies in between taken its toll on our sense of humors? Yup!

On our love affairs?

Oh hell yeah! How many times have we watched a love scene or read one with some bloodsucker and we wet our panties wishing we were the actor in their arms and then we trot off to the sack with our mortal lover in hopes of finding something that just isn’t as magical as our expectations? Does the magical enthrallment ruin what used to be a great roll in the hay? Not always! Once in a blue moon we get lucky.

As far as reality goes, I don’t even know what’s real or not any more. I have so many voices in my head daily telling me what to say, what to write, who to kill off, who to jump into bed with…. (Giant grin on that one!) that I’ve lost my sense of self. I really don’t need meds, although….

Do we need an escape hatch?

I for one do. It’s why I began writing.

I am sick of waking up every morning to a mundane cup of java, watching my dog turn yet another patch of what’s left of my green grass, brown and going to work to painstakingly, (sorry, couldn’t resist) watch the hands on the clock tick my life away one second at a time.

I do have a point. I just tend to wander off the beaten path and take the scenic route home.

Vamps have been around well before 1200. Documentation of such non-living creatures has been recorded and disputed over centuries. Folklore described the undead as those whose souls never departed their bodies after death. They were shrouded in tattered cloths and bloated once the casket was opened. 

Ah—hello! You ever see what happens to a animal’s body when it’s left outside in the sun? Puffs right up better than a hunk of dough. EWH! What do people expect when you put someone in the ground in a pine box and let them ferment? One, the bugs get in and munch on whatever bugs munch on (it’s really best NOT to think about that) and two, all the internal shit has a meltdown and turns into gases. And we all know how a gaseous tummy makes us feel, right?

 

Voltaire, a Polemic (one who practices disputing controversy wrote a long, long time ago: Vampires got out of their graves at night to suck the blood of the living and then return to their grave. The person so sucked waned, grew pale and fell to consumption, while the sucking corpse grew fat, got rosy and enjoyed an excellent appetite. The stories grew by leaps and bounds bringing us up to speed.

 

Myths, fables, some true tales have special places in our libraries, but none ever so as popular as Vlad Tepes Dracula—The Impaler. Handsome little devil isn’t he? I didn’t think so!

This is the procreator of all evil Dracula stories. Bram Stoker in 1897 wrote, Dracula, after the ruler of Wallachia, in the Balkans. Tepes stands for ‘Impaler.’ A means to which the man ended over 40,000 lives by impaling their bodies on long stakes for illegal, immoral wrongs they committed. He then displayed their corpses in public to instill fear to others whom might have considered a path less legal. He was considered a true leader.

Dracula’s name has a distinct origin. The Holy Emperor of Rome founded the religious  Order of the Dragon in 1410. Their symbol was a dragon. Seems befitting! The word Dragon in Romania is ‘drac’ and ‘ul’ is the definitive article, (no clue what that last part actually means J). This was Vlad’s father’s name; Vlad Dracul. He and his wife then popped out a little boy…

“Ulea” means son of, thus giving Vlad Dracula his name. The word “Drac”

also means the devil in Romania. Enter spooky stories.

Vlad, like so many men, has evolved over the centuries… Thank God, right? Survival of the fittest and all that anthropological BS. Vamps thrive while we barely survive.

His bite went from women being outright terrorized and screaming for their lives to a new level of an orgasmic squeal. And who wouldn’t, given the opportunity to be on the receiving end of these fine luscious lips? Look who we’ve had recently to quench our thirst, or theirs more appropriately?

I have 2 men in mind that I honestly can’t stake one over the other:

 

Angel; a vamp with a soul and seriously? The most incredulous smile I’ve ever drooled over and a bod to die for, literally! Any night of the week, baby! Currently Thursdays on Bones. Sorry, but I love David fangs or no fangs.

 

Then there’s my 2^nd fav hottie; Mick St. John:  Moonlight. Friday nights just aren’t the same L

Could someone please tell me why do all the awesome shows get cancelled? It’s not fair.

In retrospect, there’s one vamp out there that didn’t do it for me. Tom Cruise’s portrayal of Lestat in, An Interview With A Vampire. Sorry Tom. You aren’t a natural born killer.

“No picture for you!” said the soup Nazi. Any Seinfeld fans?

 

As far as books go I have my favorite authors who write a superb man of the night; Karen Marie Moning, Laurell K Hamilton, Kim Harrison, Christine Feehan to name a few. At some point, hopefully sooner than later, you’ll be able to pick up Eden’s Black Rose and add Lucian St. James to your own list of hotties. (SP shameless plug #2) J

 

I started writing this wanting to find a definitive date where the vamps turned into the good guys but as aloof as they can be, so too are specific dates, unless you go as far back as George Hamilton’s spoof on Dracula, Love At First Bite,  made in1979. Who doesn’t love George, even if he is the tannest vamp in Hollywood?

 

These days there seems to be something for everyone. If you want thrillers Richard Roxburghs’s portrayal of the Count in Van Helsing had a sexy twist. This one’s for the guys… 2 on 1. Any man’s fantasy. Am I right?

Hell, even the women vamps are gorgeous. That movie left me feeling down right trodden with my reflection in the mirror. Something these creatures obviously don’t have to worry about. Suckers!

Must be nice to sleep all day and party all night. Add a little glamour to project a image worthy of luring innocents and have your beefcake and eat it too. Literally. 

Okayyy, twilight nears and the moon is in full bloom. I must go open my windows, dab a little Eden’s Black Rose perfume behind my ears  (my heroine in my book, Serina, makes this—SP #3 J) and await my dreams since I’m pretty sure that’s as good as it gets!

Sweet dreams to all of you.

 

Oh, in the spirit of Samhein, I went to my dentist to get my smile spruced up for all my little trick or treaters. My dentist, a quirky little man who never seems to age and whom I honestly love more than I remember as of lately, told me to sit back, close my eyes and after I felt a little pinch he’d give me a smile others would die for. Ya know, in retrospect, I should have asked why he’d gotten so close to me when he had to numb me. Should have asked why his cool breath feathered across my flesh. Should have wondered why I felt like I’d been given a blast of happy gas instead of Novocain. Hmmm!

Happy Hauntings to each of you. A day we celebrate candy. Beware of land sharks.

Jaclyn Tracey,

Eden’s Black Rose

Here’s my before and after pics:

Before the dentist:

After my dental appointment:

I would like to take just a minute to introduce the newest member of our family, Dalton. 

He is almost 4 months old, a pitbull and fearless. He is the sweetest little nibbler I've met. Forgot just how sharp puppy teeth are until they sink into you. 

Wow. I can't believe I haven't updated this blog in 7 weeks. Time really does fly, or at least it seems to more so in the summer months. Am I right? We muddle through the winter, or at least I do, waiting for the first signs of spring--the first little blossom to pop through the snow and pray for no Noreasters in the mean time. I so should live south, but alas, my family loves the one thing I despise. White fluffy stuff and I don't mean the stuff that compliments peanut butter better than Sonny did Cher. 

With summer comes weekends filled with weddings, graduations, poolside parties, BBQ's and BASEBALL! OH YEAH! GO YANKEES! All right, maybe not today... Yes, I whined a lot after the game.

 We celebrated my niece's wedding in June. The day was warm and sunny, the atmosphere jovial and the entire day a dream come true for my niece and her new husband. Jess and Ryan are now living in Tacoma, Washington begininng thier lives. 

I have finally gotten some sun this year. Writing about vampires is one thing. Living like them and secluding myself the past 4+ years is another. For the first time in eons, I have a tan. I know I always preach sunblock to my family after working in dermatology for 7 years but what the hey! That's what my bff, Kathy, is for. If I get a skin cancer I'll go visit her. Possibly not my smartest choice but right now, I'm tired of the pasty, glazed over shell I've had. 

I'm just getting back into the swing of things--taking my Lonny for walks, or runs. We started running this past week. Been out 4 times now. This morning I almost made 2 miles. OMG, I'm so not going to able to walk tomorrow or Monday for sure. It won't be pretty. What's that saying, no pain, no gain?

Less than 2 weeks left to the official close of summer. I hope each of you enjoyed your days basking in the warm rays, cannonballing some unsuspecting soul passing by the pool or relaxing with family and friends at some gathering. I know I did. Pretty soon, it'll be back to my computer to write... write...write:)

Enjoy tomoorw. Life's too short not to.

Jack

HAPPY 4TH. 

I hope each of you got to spend the day with family and friends in a warm, DRY, setting. Hope there were many 'Oooh's and Awes' and delighted faces as the night sky came to life with vibrant colors. Would you guys humor me and take just one moment to say a quick prayer and thanks to all of the men and women who have helped keep our countrie's Indepence Day just that? Let Freedom Ring!

With that said, 

On July 13th I have been asked to host Dayana Knight's blog and chat about whatever I want. That could go either way ~ good or bad. We are running a contest and to see the list of prizes and rules please hop onto Dayana's site and check it out. You have to find the liberty bell and keep track of it for the month. I hope you come and join me. I'll be giving away a free copy of Eden's Black Rose for your computer, when it's released, as a gift to some lucky person. When perusing Dayana's site, please take the time to check out her the 1st book in her Roma Wolf Tales series, Curse of the Marhime. I just finished reading the book and crawled away hungry for more. Pita Sedgwick is heroine and is a woman we can all easily relate to. She's down to earth, literally on all fours during parts of the novel, and all she really wants is a sense of self and true love. Who doesn't want that? I definitely would recommend the book to anyone who enjoys stories of lycan and shifters and one sweet romance. 

Gotta run. The fireworks are going off in our neighborhood.

Here's the link for the 13th:

Dayanaknight@blogspot.com

Sweet dreams

Jt

A few mindless ramblings on writing

Every virgin sheet of paper has the propensity to become the next greatest novel. All it takes is a dream and your heart, blood, sweat and tears... And in most cases a gadzillion hours spent with only your own thoughts and sense of humor to get you through the next page or scene.

 The comfort factor is there are groups out there of real humans, not just people we meet in cyber space. Others that we can sit around a table with, share our ideas, get help with an idea or plot that we've run out of metaphors for or to just feel like we really aren't all alone out there. Because let's face it, writing can get very lonely with the exception of all your characters talking your head off. 

Sometimes it's nice to see a REAl face. A smile can go a long way.

I spent this weekend at the CR-RWA Conference in Albany, NY with a group of women that are a rare find. They are forthright in their quest to do whatever it takes to make it in a profession where, and I quote,"Editors and agents are looking for a reason to reject manuscripts." Makes absolutely no sense to me then why they're even in the business but, that's was told to us last night by a panel of editors and agents. Then why, with such a grim outlook would we step up to the plate and strive for a grandslam when the publishing business wants to strike us out? 

I can't speak for others but I love to write. I want to share my unique twisted views of life, death and whatever falls in between. And when real life gets to be too much I need an escape hatch. Been off hiding for the past four years now!  Writing can be cathartic, soothing a withered soul, venting or giving an old idea a new breath of air. Sometimes it can be beneficial, informative or down right dull and lull you into a deep void. Even in sleep, dreams are plentiful, bizarre and sometimes outright insane. (And if you know me, you know I'm always sharing what went on the night before. Let me clarify that, dream-wise. Get your head out of the gutter.) I don't have too many delusions of granduer that I'll top JK Rowlings or Nora Roberts, but every now and then it's fun to let the mind wander down that yellow brick road and see if OZ and the great magician has anything in his magic hat for me. I'm not holding much hope since the scarecrow got the brain already.

The conference was informative and fun and at the same time it left a pit in my tummy. The economy we live in today has hit every industry, except sports it seems. Athletes are the only creatures out there making boucoup bucks. The editor/agent panel talked a lot about cutbacks on advances for the bigger houses and less books being printed.... They said, "Getting published is easier than staying published!" OUCH!

Tomorrow,  I'm diving back into my 3rd book and doing the dredded 'R' word again... revising. It is possible to teach an old dog new tricks. I am learning, just at a snail's pace. When I get some free time, 2012? I'm going to write a book on 'what not to do to get published.' I'm quite certain I've made every mistake known to the book world.

1. Do your homework. Research, reseach... Know what you're writing about. You don't have to earn a PhD in your genre but at least know enough to sound credible or scoot past the editor's red pen marks.

2. Follow the guidlines editors set up. They aren't out to set up a maze you can't write your way out of, they just need some form of organization... something I'm still grasping.

3. Trust in yourself. That's the hardest part. You can only read your manuscript so many times and change it so many times before you want to shred the damned thing. If you're changing it up every time you look at it, step back and put space between you and block of paper. Take a long walk, a Forrest Gump kinda walk.

4. Learn the jargon the publishing community uses.  I can't tell you how many months/years I wasted with queries and synopsis because I thought 'no multiple submissions meant for the querie itsself. I sent out one at a time and waited and watched a new grey hair pop out of my head daily. 

Then every other page of writer's manuels tells you in big bold print DO NOT BUG THE EDITOR with questions after you've submitted and to just wait till you hear from them. I lost 9 months on that because my manuscript was surfing through space before it was found again. 

Thankfully my book has found a home and a wonderful editor who I dearly love. She has been instrumental in teaching me things, patient, keeping me sane and keeping my dream alive.

So in closing, I'd like to thank her for not looking for a reason to reject my book. 

I came away from the conference with a new sense of how the publishing industry works, their likes and dislikes, do's and don'ts and met some very interesting people. Saw a few women I haven't seen in a while and enjoyed the time with them. I'm looking forward to next year's gathering.

Easter Sunday

I'd like to begin by wishing each of you a happy Easter. This happens to be one of my favorite holidays. I have tender childhood memories of waking up to find a beautiful Easter dress, a hat, new shoes (one of my passions) and oodles of candy. Dear Lord, could the day get any better? The Easter Egg  Hunts were probably the most fun. Searching every nook and cranny of the home to find the little treasures hidden in vases, corners of the room, in between the couch cushions (which didn't work to any one's vantage when they weren't found and forgotten) and right in plain sight most times. I loved the meals my mom and grandmother prepared. Ham, dripping with brown sugar, creamy mashed potatoes and the vegatables... I've learned over the years to love them, but when you're a kid, it's not about the veggies. 

My parents weren't religeous by any means. My mom was baptized Catholic, went to a Catholic school in England and had her left hand broken because she was a south paw. She never went back to the church. My dad was an Athiest. When I was 5 years old they asked me which religion I wanted to be baptized and I picked the one I couldn't pronounce, Episcopal. Sadly, I have yet to walk into an Episcopal church. I was always brought to Sunday mass by my aunt. I'll date myself terribly now; when we were little you couldn't enter a church without some covering on your head. Each Sunday my aunt would strip her tables of doilies and place them on her daughter's and my head. Not even half way through the mass my cousin would elbow me and say, "Get ready!" The Priest would walk down the isle with his censer, incense clouding the room, and my cousin and I would begin to cough. He would get up and drag me from the church so we could get out sitting through the rest of the sermon. Yes, we got 'time out' for it on more than one occasion. I seem to have gone off on a tangent. Let me get back.  

From a personal point of view, I was born on Easter Sunday, and haven't had the holiday land on my birthday since. I think the next time it does land on my birthday, I'll be too old to remember it. 

I attempted to do a little reseach on Easter, to find a simple meaning. There is no simple meaning. It seemed one thing led me to another, mostly because I didn't understand what I was reading.  Easter did not always symbolize Christ's resurrection from the dead. I found the Pagan's celebrated the festival day due to the season's rebirth and renewal of life. They honored the Saxon goddess Eastre.

After the Pagan's were converted to Christianity their holiday and the Christian's resurrection of Christ fell close together and the days were merged to become Easter. 

Easter comes on a different day each year. It is chosen by the moon's cycle. Easter is always the first Sunday after the Paschal moon, (another word I looked up—Paschal, meaning Passover), which is the first moon whose 14th day, (the ecclesiastic "full moon") is on or after the March 21st, (the ecclesiastic vernal equinox).

The vernal equinox happens twice a year, spring and fall. It is when the earth's axis is neither tilted away or to the sun, but the sun is vertically above the equator, giving way to the length of day and night being equal in hours.

My last quest was to find out when the Easter Bunny hopped into town. Seems he's been visiting children's homes since the 1600's. 

The cute little bunny was chosen due to its fertil ability to bring forth life, tying into the renewal and rebirth of spring.

The Easter Egg, was also chosen for this reason, fertility and birth. Back in the day... all right, way back, eggs were colored either red, for Christ's blood or green for the new foliage spring brought after a long winter's solstice.

The last little thing I found of interest was the saying, "Wild as  a mad hare" or "If you get a wild hare", comes from the mating rituals of the rabbits in spring time. They do crazy dances to entice the females to mate with them and people witnessing this thought the animals mad.

I hope each of you enjoy your holiday, whatever the day means to you, either religeous or personal. And I hope the bunny drops off loads of Cadbury's to you!

Jack